


They Die With Us

by Fairylights4672



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Detective Yaz wants to know what’s up with them, F/M, The Doctor gets injured and The Masters the only one that can help, They end up talking about Gallifrey, not big into DW lore so don’t shoot me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-04-25 09:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22289356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairylights4672/pseuds/Fairylights4672
Summary: The Doctor had been thrown against a pillar, and currently had a large metal pole, impaled deep into her stomach. Blood was pooling around the metal and dripping down it, sickeningly slowly.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 42
Kudos: 627





	They Die With Us

Yaz drummed her fingers on the console of the TARDIS. She chewed on her lip as the Doctor whirled around as usual, flicking switches and pulling levers. 

Ryan and Graham were stood around, making conversation as the Doctor lead them to a new destination. 

But Yaz watched her friend. She couldn’t help but worry. It had been weeks since their encounter with the Master, and since that, the Doctor hadn’t been the same. 

Whilst she pretended to be- acted jovially, smiling and answering questions, every now and then it would become apparent. 

Some questions she would snap the answer to, sometimes she would be short with them, and sometimes she barely talked at all. 

Graham had tried once, to bring up what the Doctor had told them about herself a few weeks prior. He had asked what Gallifrey was like- an innocent question if Yaz was asked. 

But the Doctor hasn’t said anything. She’d turned away from them, and when Ryan had asked if she was ok, she’d asked them to leave the console room. 

They’d been confused, and concerned, but the Doctor had assured them that sometimes she just needed some time alone with her TARDIS. 

But the three of them would’ve been fools to ignore the throwing and shouting and eventual crying. 

When they’d finally braved venturing back into the room, they’d found the Doctor sat in the doorway of the TARDIS, doors open, peering into the galaxies below. She was asleep, with one leg hung out of the door. There were gentle tear tracks down her face.

The three of them had never seen the Doctor asleep by her own will, or vulnerable at all. Apart from when she’d first regenerated. But that was nothing like this. 

So they’d left her. And pretended to have never seen anything at all. 

“Almost there!” The Doctor pulled Yaz out of her thoughts, and she smiled at the Time traveller. “You’ll love it, trust me.” She grinned at Yaz, who nodded encouragingly. 

“I trust your judgement Doctor.” She reassured. 

“If it’s any better than Tranquility I’ll be a happy man.” Graham laughed softly. 

“Well it doesn’t exactly take much.” Ryan scoffed.

Suddenly, there was a jolt, and Yaz stumbled, steadying herself on the console. 

“Doctor, what was that?” She asked, not liking the frown on the time travellers brow. 

“Uh-“ The Doctor skidded over to a screen next to Yaz, tapping it a few times. Symbols scattered along the screen, and for a moment Yaz thought it was broken, before she saw the Doctor reading it perfectly well. 

“What language is that?”

“Gallifreyan.” The Doctor answered absently as she skidded back past her. Yaz’s eyes widened and she scooted closer to the screen to look at the lanaguage, as the Doctor swung herself down to the second floor of the console room and called up to them. “It’s nothing to worry about! Just a fuel rod! Got a little hot and bent out of place!” 

“Is it an easy fix, Doc?” Graham called down. 

“Oh yeah, should be! Just got to cool the engine down.” 

“Ryan look at this.” Yaz beckoned quietly, and her friends made their way over to her, as she pointed at the screen. “It’s Gallifreyan.” 

“It’s beautiful.” Ryan looked at it curiously. 

“How can she read that? It’s just shapes.” Graham frowned. 

“Aren’t all words just shapes?” Ryan frowned. 

“What are you all whispering about up there?!” The Doctor called from below. “I’m not a big fan of secre- Ah!” 

Yaz heard they Doctor cry out in pain and she gasped, the three of them hurrying their way down to the second floor. 

“Doctor?!” 

The Doctor had been thrown against a pillar, and currently had a large metal pole, impaled deep into her stomach. Blood was pooling around the metal and dripping down it, sickeningly slowly. 

“Doctor!” Yaz and the others rushed over. “Oh my god, what happened?” 

“Fuel rod, broke apart.” The Doctor panted, hands already covered in blood and attempting fruitlessly to move the pole. 

Ryan and Graham wrapped their arms around the pole, and attempted to yank it out of the Doctor, who cried out in pain when it shifted and she hit her head against the pillar. 

“You’re going to be alright Doc, just hang on in there.” Graham tried to reassure. 

“Has it gone all the way through you?” Yaz asked, grabbing one of the Doctor’s blood covered hands for the alien to squeeze tightly. 

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.” She tried to breath deeply. 

Suddenly, there was another jolt, and the whole ship shook. The Doctor yelled in pain, as the lightsflickered. 

“Yaz. Go up there and look at the screen. Tell me what it’s showing.” The Doctor murmured. Yaz was hesitant to leave her friend, but did what she was told. 

The screen had a green pin point, and was showing larger circles placed abnormally around it. She reported what she’d seen back to the Doctor, who groaned. 

“We’re in an asteroid field.”

Yaz gasped, and looked at Ryan. Her friend looked at her helplessly. It was clear they couldn’t move it on their own. 

There was pause whilst the Doctor thought, before she groaned in what sounded like reluctance. 

“Yaz, go to the drawer underneath the screen. It should open if you press it. There’s a disk in there, give it to me.” The Doctor told her. 

Yaz nodded helplessly, and opened the drawer. A small disk, with blue lights dotted around it’s surface flashed bfore her. She picked it up and ran back down to where the Doctor was. 

There was a pool of blood around her now, and Yaz swallowed nervously, before taking position behind Graham, and trying to help the boys shift the pole. 

The three of them groaned with the effort, but it was clear the pole wasn’t going anywhere. 

“Doctor..” Ryan trailed off helplessly. 

“I know, it’s ok.” Even bleeding out, the alien still reassured them, fruitlessly. “Just, let me focus for a moment.” 

The time traveller closed her eyes and rested her head against the pillar behind her, breathing out slowly. 

“Contact.” She whispered. 

The three of them glanced at one another, unsure of which one of them she was talking too. 

The Doctor was silent for a moment, and then inhaled sharply. 

“Funnily enough, I do know that. Currently in a bit of a sticky situation. I need your help.” 

Yaz glanced at Ryan and Graham, who looked as confused as she did. 

“You can find me. The TARDIS is going through a meteor field. You’re the only one who knows how to fly it.”

A pause. 

“Because if you don’t, I won’t regenerate.” 

She scoffed quietly. 

“Oh I would. To save my friends? I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

She paused and opened her eyes, looking down at her blood soaked middle. 

“Please hurry.” 

The Doctor looked at Yaz, as if she was suddenly out of a daze, and held out her hand. 

“Yaz, give me the teleport.” She passed it to blood soaked hands. “Always useful for situations like this.” The Doctor chuckled. “Now, promise me you three won’t be afraid. He’s not going to hurt you. He’ll be far too preoccupied.” She reassured. 

“Doctor, what are you talking about? Who?” Yaz asked. 

The Doctor only pushed down on the teleport, and light flooded above them, before disappearing soon after. 

She heard a deep sigh. 

“Where’s the damage?”

Yaz’s heart dropped. She knew that voice. She had hoped to never hear it again. 

-

The Doctor was hurting. He could feel it in his core. 

But as he sauntered down the stairs as her TARDIS pulsed in response to his presence, he hadn’t been expecting that. 

The ship jolted again as his eyes widened. 

“Doctor..” he hurried to her side, a little quicker than he’d like to admit. 

“Hey. Good to see you again.” She laughed breathlessly. “Knew you wouldn’t be trapped for long.” 

“How have you managed this?” 

“Asteroid, knocked a fuel rod out of place. I came down to fix it. And..got impaled.” 

“Well why haven’t you pulled it out of her yet?” He rounded on the little human pests. Always stood there, with their mouths hanging open, no idea what to do. 

“We tried.” The older one tried to reason. The Master seemed to remember his name being something like Graham. “It’s too heavy.” 

“Then get a saw.” He snapped. 

“Where do you find the saw?” Yaz- he remembered her- asked. She seemed to be the most put together at the moment. 

“Under that panel. Tap on the floor twice. It’s where she keeps her tools for repairs.” He explained shortly, before turning to the Doctor. 

“Doctor, look at me.” He demanded. Her vision was fading, and when he took ahold of her shoulders, he could feel the regeneration energy fizzing under her skin. “Doctor!” He snapped harshly. 

“Promise you’ll look after them.” She mumbled. 

“Doc?” Graham whispered behind her. 

“I’ll get them out of the meteor field.” The Master compromised. 

“I knew you weren’t all bad.” She slurred with a quiet laugh. 

“Only for you.” He sighed, placing a gentle kiss to her bloodied hand, before marching back up to the main console. 

He sighed and pulled down a few levers, pressing buttons and swinging around screens. 

The TARDIS whirred under his touch, and whined in guilt and concern. He placed a reassuring hand on the console, and listened to the Doctor’s friends below. 

One of them sounded like they were on the verge of crying. Another trying to reassure the time lord. 

The Master cut away the human voices, and listened for the Doctor. Amongst the pleads and questions and reassurances, the time lord heard the weak beat of two hearts, and shallow breaths, mixed with occasional groans or sharp intakes of breath. He knew she felt him listening. It felt as if every breath she took was a tiny cry for help. 

She was breathing. She was still her. For now. 

It took longer than the Master would’ve liked for him to steer them out of the meteor field, and by the time he and the TARDIS had managed it, she was practically kicking him back down the stairs to go and help the Doctor. 

“Why are you still standing there like a bunch of idiots?” He barked, when he saw Yaz still stood with the saw in hand, and the Doctor- still impaled. She’d long passed out by now. But she was breathing. The Master could feel the energy beneath her skin stronger now- from about a foot away. They didn’t have long. 

“You didn’t explain how the alien saw worked!” She argued as he yanked it off of her. “And I didn’t want to hurt her.”

“She’s already been impaled.” He switched it on, and the blue lasers formed what looked almost like a holographic saw blade. 

He handed it back to Yaz and pointed at a point on the pole, about half a metre away from the Doctor. 

“Cut here.” 

She began to do what she was told, burning the metal into a clean cut. 

“You.” The Master clicked at the third- he didn’t know his name. “Pull it out once it’s separate.” 

“Is that smart?” He asked concernedly. “I mean, don’t they always tell you to keep it in?”

“Maybe on your puny planet.” The Master snapped, annoyed at his questions already. “We’re time lords. I know what I’m doing.” 

“Ok.” The man sighed heavily with concern, grabbing the pole a little further up. 

The Master glanced up at his old friend. Her lips were parted and stained with blood. She was pale and her eyes were closed. It was clear she was drifting in and out of consciousness now and again- probably awaiting the removal of the rod to begin another regeneration. 

“It’s almost cut.” Yaz reported. “Ok, pull on three.” 

The Master looked at the three of them- Graham was watching nervously, and turned back to the Doctor. 

“One,” Yaz swallowed. “Two.” The third adjusted his hands. “Three!” 

Yaz pulled back and Ryan yanked the pole from the time lord, who immediately came crashing down into the Master’s arms. 

He heard an echo in his mind, of a small child who was afraid. 

‘Koschei.’

‘Hush now, I’ve got you.’ He reassured gently.

He wasted no time in scooping her up, and carrying her up the stairs- unfortunately followed by her friends. 

“Where are you going?”

“To a bed.” He answered shortly. 

“How do you know where everything is on here? The place is endless.” Graham asked. 

“It’s the TARDIS. It wants her to live more than you do.” 

And the Master was right. The first left in the corridor ended him up in a bedroom, where he gently laid the Doctor down on the bed. 

“What are you going to do?” Yaz asked. The time lord was already fed up with their incessant questions, and he turned. 

“Time lord stuff. Now get out. I’ll call you when I’m done.” 

The three looked between eachother, before the nameless one shook his head. 

“No. We’re staying.” 

“Fine. It’s your funeral, cuz I won’t control it for your sake if she explodes. Just don’t distract me.” He tugged off his bloodied coat and rolled up his sleeves to the elbow. 

The Master gently pried up what was left of the Doctor’s shirt, revealing a gaping, bloody hole. It didn’t go straight through her, but he could see the delicate weaves of regeneration energy already beginning to patch her up. 

He bit his lip. 

He knew it was selfish, but he couldn’t help it. Or maybe it wasn’t selfish. He knew the Doctor hadn’t been in this body long, and part of him wanted her to stay in it a little longer. He found it particularly fun to rile up, and- different. To what was her usual. If there was a usual. 

The Master didn’t want her to change, not yet. So he made the decision. 

Sitting down on the corner of the bed, he placed his own hand over her abdomen, and breathed out slowly. 

Tendrils of golden energy flowed from his finger tips and into her being. They danced around her body, illuminating her face delicately, and the Master almost felt a little soft for a moment. 

“Holy..” Graham whispered, and the Master could see the three of them in his peripheral, mouths agape as the golden rope tied together new flesh and bone, and lit up the room. 

There was something he liked in being able to show off to other races the power of the time lords. Whilst he had his own vendetta against them, there was still a smugness to it. They were an envied race by many. 

The room around them whirred contentedly as the Doctor sucked in a deep breath, her head moving to one side as the golden tendrils disappeared.

The Master felt quite drained after, but it was worth it. Gently stroking some hair from her face, he sighed. 

“When will you stop getting yourself into trouble, that doesn’t involve me, Hm?” He murmured. “My foolish Doctor.”

He missed the look the three of them gave one another behind him. 

-

Graham stepped forward as the Master stood up and turned to them, picking up his coat. 

“I should warn you,” he drawled. “Whilst the Doctor only used half of her regeneration energy, mine made up the second half.” 

“What does that mean?” Yaz frowned. He sighed tiredly, and shrugged on his coat. 

“It means, she hasn’t had a full regeneration, but her mind will think that she has. Were you there when she regenerated into..this body?” He asked. 

“Not there, there. But like..half an hour afterwards.” Ryan nodded. “She asked me what a tongue was. She couldn’t remember who she was, and she fainted.” 

“Exactly. Expect that.” He stepped past them, and Graham almost grabbed him by the elbow but thought better of it. 

“Woah, woah woah, where are you going?” 

“I’m leaving.” The Master said simply. 

“You can’t leave now.” He argued. “The Doctor needs you.” 

“You’ve dealt with this before.” He argued shortly. “I’ve done what she asked me to do.” 

“But..the TARDIS,” Yaz butted in. “It’s still broken. What if something goes wrong before she’s well enough to fix it, and we get hurt.” She argued. “She told you not to let that happen.”

The Master stood for a moment, seemingly thinking it over. He sighed deeply. 

“Fine. I’ll fix it now.” And he left the room, the fear and darkness following him out. 

They sank down in the armchairs the room had supplied, breathing a long sigh of relief. 

“Why do you two want him to stay?” Ryan asked incredulously. 

“Because they’re both time lords, Ryan. He can deal with this better than we can.” Yaz argued. Graham nodded in agreement. 

“We’ve dealt with it before.” His grandson argued. 

“When we were on Earth. We knew where we were.” Yaz explained. 

“Yeah, and now,” Graham added. “We’re on an infinite ship, in the middle of all of space, and anything could happen. I mean, the first time we saw her? Didn’t she say that she’d fallen out of her TARDIS?” Yaz nodded. “We need him.” 

“Fine.” He sighed. “It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“I don’t expect you too. I don’t.” Graham admitted. 

He was worried for the Doctor. Despite her recent distance, he still considered her a best friend- close to family. He was just glad she was alien for once. He knew full well a human wouldn’t have come back from a wound like that. 

“I don’t understand though.” Ryan continued. “I mean, they hate each other. He tried to kill us. And she sent him to another dimension. Why are they friends all of a sudden?” 

Yaz sighed and shrugged. 

“I think their history goes deeper than we realise. I mean, they’re time lords. The Doctor said they can regenerate their bodies. And the Master said he’d been stuck on Earth for 77 years, and he hadn’t exactly aged. God knows how long they’re in a body for. They could both be hundreds of years old.”

“I guess.” Ryan shrugged. 

“Huh.” Graham considered. “I’ve never thought of that.” He admitted. “I wonder how old the Doc really is.”

“Old, is what I’m betting.” Yaz ran a hand over her face. All the stress was catching up to them, Graham could feel the ache in his arms. 

“And yet, she’s never told us anything.” He frowned. “I mean I’m all for waiting until she’s ready, but y’know. We tell her everything. We live on her ship, we trust her. When really, we don’t know anything about her.”

“I know.” Ryan nodded. “I just want to know who she is. Why she’s been so moody for these couple weeks.” 

“Me too.” Yaz admitted quietly. “I’m all for giving her space, but it’s a little crazy that we’ve been travelling with her for two years, and we still know nothing.” 

“Two years is probably a minute to her, if she’s really as old as we think she is.” Ryan considered, and Yaz frowned, biting her lip. The same thought that crossed her mind, crossed Graham’s lips. 

“How much do we mean to her?” He asked quietly. “I mean, if she’s hundreds of years old, god knows how many people she’s had travelling with her.” He paused and glanced across at the time lord, who was sleeping soundly. “Are we disposable?” He frowned a little. 

“No.” Yaz shook her head firmly. “Absolutely not. You heard her earlier, the Doctor said if the Master didn’t come and help us, she’d force herself not to regenerate. That must mean death.” 

Graham shook off the dark thought and nodded. 

“You’re right. That was horrible to think.” 

“It’s ok. I was thinking the same thing.” She admitted quietly. 

-

Ryan and the others wandered into the console room two hours later, to go and check on how the Master was doing. 

When they walked in, however, the first thing they heard was..arguing? 

Ryan couldn’t really call it that. More like, the Master talking sternly to the TARDIS, and the ship growling back at him. 

“Is everything ok?” Yaz asked politely, coming to stand behind the time lord, spanner in hand. 

“The TARDIS is trying to stop me fixing her.” He was clearly annoyed, as he turned to them. Ryan frowned. 

“Why?”

“If I had to guess, she either doesn’t want anyone except the Doctor prodding around in her, or she doesn’t want me to go.” He put a hand on the wall behind him, before pulling it away again. “Ow!”

“What happened?”

“Electric shock.” He glared at the pillar. “Well now you’re just being mean.” 

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Graham asked kindly. The Master scoffed. 

“Absolutely not. Your tiny human brains wouldn’t even begin to understand time lord technology. And you’d just get in the way.” 

“Hey!” Ryan scowled at the intruder. “Our brains aren’t small.”

“You couldn’t figure out how to turn on a saw, you expect me to let you loose on a sentient ship?” 

“Well, maybe we could clean up some of the blood, or something.” Yaz suggested. 

“Already did it.” The Master answered shortly, opening a hatch and jumping inside. 

Yaz sighed and rolled her eyes. Ryan glanced at her. He could feel her frustration. It seemed time lords just had a habit of never giving answers longer than necessary. 

“If you won’t let us help, can we ask some questions?” Yaz asked. 

“You never stop anyway.” The Master snapped. When he didn’t say no, Yaz shrugged at them and tentatively asked, 

“So..uh..on average, how long is a time lord in a body for?” 

He sighed deeply from the hole. 

“I don’t know. It depends on what they do. Maybe, a couple hundred years?” 

“And they don’t age? In the body?” 

“Of course they age.” He scoffed. “Just slower than your body.”

“So,” she paused. “How old are you and the Doctor?”

“Lost count. Ouch! Would you stop?” He hissed at the ship. “Two thousands Earth years, give or take.”

Ryan whistled. He couldn’t even imagine someone being that old. The things the Doctor must have seen, he could only imagine.

“Why are you asking me anyway?” The Master asked. “Isn’t this the kind of thing the Doctor tells you?” 

“No.” Yaz admitted. “The Doctor doesn’t tell us anything.” 

“Oh?” They heard his interest peak. “Nothing?” 

“She only told us she was a time lord a couple weeks ago. We don’t know why she’s so secretive.” Graham admitted. Ryan was starting to think they might be being too open with the Master, until he jumped back out of the whole and closed the hatch behind him. 

“Is that so?” Graham nodded. “Well, what do you want to know?”

Ryan’s curiosity immediately outweighed his acceptance of the Doctor’s wishes, and so he opened his mouth to say something, when the TARDIS whirred beneath their feet, almost excitedly. 

“What’s it saying?” Ryan asked. But the Master wasn’t listening. He stepped up to the main console quickly, the three of them following behind him. 

The Doctor was stood in the doorway, looking incredibly disorientated. 

-

The Master looked her up and down. She’d changed her shirt, and had taken off her long coat. Her eyes were quite wide, and she was holding up her hands, coated with dried, dark blood. 

“Who’s blood is this?” She demanded. 

“It’s yours.” He stepped towards her, “and you should lie down.” The Doctor made her way over to him, holding her hands to his face. He gently took ahold of her wrists, pulling them down. “You’re still healing.” 

“Regeneration.” She scoffed. “Easy peasy- oo!” The time lord gasped and pulled away from him, skidding over to her friends. “Fam!” 

“Hi Doc. Good to see you back on your feet again.” Graham smiled genuinely. 

“Yeah, thank you Graham. I feel great actually.” The Doctor was waving her hands around as she spoke, and the one the Master had come to pick up as Ryan took a step back to avoid a slap round the face. 

“Graham.” The Doctor repeated, pointing at the older man. “Graham...Ryan.” She moved to point at Ryan, and then glanced at Yaz. “Graham..Ryan....Clara!” She announced. 

“Who?” Yaz frowned. 

“No Doctor,” the Master stepped towards her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She turned to face him, eyes wide and curious. “Not Clara. Yaz.”

“Yaz.” She tested the word on her tongue. “Well then..where’s Clara?” 

“Gone. Remember?”

“Oh.” Her expression saddened. “Yeah. I remember.” She blinked at him, before her eyes narrowed. “Come closer!” The Master got tugged forward by the lapels, as the Doctor squinted, looking into one of his eyes carefully. 

“Doctor, what are you doing?” He asked patiently. 

“Did you know, your pupils dilate when you’re looking at something you love. Which makes your eyes, very useful, when trying to see your own reflection.” She chirped, and he sighed deeply, but made no effort to deny it. 

The Doctor tilted her head slightly, and gasped. “I’m a woman!” The other time lord threw him backwards slightly when she let go, running her hands through her hair and over her face. “I’m a woman. I haven’t been a woman in forever. Does it suit me?” She asked. 

“Of course, my dear.”

The Doctor looked down and attempted to pick up one of her own feet. 

“Two feet, always good.” She grabbed her hair and pulled it into her peripheral, before throwing her head back and groaning. “Still not ginger!”

“Doctor, you’ve been in this body for a while already.” Yaz pointed out, the Doctor throwing her a look. 

“I think I’d remember. But thanks Donna.”

“I’m Yaz.” She huffed. 

“I miss Donna.” The Doctor looked crestfallen for a moment, before gasping and clambering onto her console when the TARDIS whirred. 

“Doctor! Get down!” Ryan tried. 

“What did the mean time lord do to you?” the Doctor wrapped her arms around the giant crystal in the centre of the console, moving up and down with it. “It’s ok, daddy’s here.”

“You’re a woman.” The Master pointed out, almost patiently. 

“I’m a woman!” She whipped back around. “You’re not.” She pointed out, jumping off of the console. 

“Not anymore.” He agreed. 

“Huh?” Graham’s eyes widened, but the two ignored him. 

“You know, you really shouldn’t be jumping around. You’re still healing. I can feel it.” The Master smirked fondly as the Doctor came toe to toe with him, prodding a finger to his chest, with not much force. 

“What are you doing in my TARDIS?”

“You asked me to come.” He shrugged. The Doctor scoffed. 

“I did not! I’d never do anything of the sort. You’re nothing but trouble.”

“Isn’t that’s why you keep inviting me back?” He asked smugly. 

“Keep?” Yaz repeated. 

“You’ve got one too!” The Doctor gasped, before sticking her tongue out for the Master to see. “Whatis?”

“Tongue.”

“Tongue!” She gasped, closing her mouth again. “Biology! Well done Ryan!”

“I’m Ryan.” Ryan pointed out. 

“I know. That’s what I said.” The Doctor frowned at him. “Where are we?” She turned back to the screen, and the Master wrapped a hand gently around her wrist. 

“Don’t you think it’s time for you to sleep? You’re still hurting.”

“I am not.” She argued, not looking behind her at the other time lord. 

“Yes, you are.” 

“I’m fine!” She protested, tapping the screen. “I’m a woman now!”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“It means I- “ the Doctor cut off with a sharp intake of breath, and she put a hand to her abdomen. 

“You’re weak. You have to rest.” He argued. 

“But my nose isn’t telling me I’m going to faint. And my nose is very reliable.” She tried to reason. 

“Your nose might not be, but I am.” He pressed two fingers to her temple and the Doctor’s legs gave out. He scooped her up into his arms as her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing evened out. 

“You shouldn’t have done that.” Yaz argued half-heartedly as he turned to take her back to bed. 

“Trust me. The longer she rests, the quicker she’ll be on her feet once she’s finished.”

-

The Doctor woke up with a jolt. There were four blurry faces staring back at her from different places in the room. 

She breathed shallowly and looked down at her hands. They looked fine- clean, but she could feel vibrations underneath them, like there was a swarm of bees living just under her skin. 

“Still...fizzing.”

“You’ll be ok.” The Doctor looked up at the face closest to hers, he was about a foot away, and she narrowed her eyes. Faces flicked through her mind. Who was he? Jack? No. Rory possibly? No. Or- she knew. The Master. 

“I know who you are.” She decided to point out to him. 

“Well that’s always good news.” The Doctor ignored his comment and stumbled upright. 

She looked at the other three faces hard. Too many faces. Too many people. 

“Graham.” She pointed at the older man, who nodded. She pointed at the younger one. “Nardo- no! No don’t tell me!” She hit her forehead with the heel of her hand, “oh! I know, it’s in here somewhere,” before clapping said hands together. “Ryan!”

“And?” Ryan looked at a woman, who looked hopeful and nervous. 

“And...uh..uh..” the Doctor blinked at her for a long time. “Uh..” she looked down at herself, frowning. “Uh..the Doctor!” 

“Wha-“

“That’s who I am! I’m the Doctor!” She announced happily. The time lord turned to the only one who would understand what she was going through, who raised his eyebrows. “Mind, going too fast.”

“Ah. The curse of the time lord.” 

“Too many faces.” The Doctor began to pace the floor, as if it could help her untangle the knot she’d snagged in her mind. “Too many languages. Voices too. Voices.”

“And places?” He guessed. 

“And places! I’ve been to so many places!” She informed him. She gasped and practically ran over to the woman, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her all of a sudden. “Yaz!”

“Ow!” The Doctor pulled back when she felt the whip of energy between them, but still Yaz smiled. “You remembered.”

“Of course I remembered! I always remember!” She announced. “I remember everything there is to remember.”

The Doctor stopped and felt her tongue- that was it, a tongue, in her mouth. 

“What do you want?” The Master asked. 

“Muffins. I love muffins. Are we in your TARDIS? Do you have muffins?”

“We’re in yours so you tell me.” 

“Yes! Follow me!” The Doctor turned on her heel and marched towards the door. Her vision blurred and she heard four voices behind her telling her to stop but she didn’t quite understand why until she smashed into the wall. 

“Ow! Who put that there?” She gasped offendedly as the Master took her by the shoulders and lead her out of the doorway. “Your TARDIS needs less walls.”

“I’ll be sure to look into that.”

-

Yaz ducked as a pomegranate came flying over her head. 

The Master had informed them, that commonly after a regeneration, or, the similar thing the Doctor was going through, food was something time lords craved the most. 

But apparently, time lords were also incredibly picky. The TARDIS had been supplying the Doctor with new food for almost an hour, and the time lord was yet to be satisfied. 

When Yaz wasn’t dodging flying pastries, she was watching in awe, of the Master. 

It couldn’t be argued that she wasn’t his biggest fan, but Yaz couldn’t help but be impressed. 

It turned out, when they weren’t trying to kill one another or thwart the others plans, the Doctor and the Master got on like a house on fire. 

None of the Doctor’s behaviours had seemed to phase him in the slightest, and he even helped her fill in the closing gaps in her memory. He was incredibly patient, and gentle, and caring in the way he interacted with her. Even after the fourth time she asked what her tongue was. 

But Yaz couldn’t figure out why. She supposed it could be a couple of things. The first, being that the Master could sympathise with the Doctor’s behaviour, and didn’t want her to go through it on her own, when he could be there to help her. The second, being that he was only doing this as part of a giant plot to somehow murder them all- but Yaz supposed he would’ve already done it if he was going too. Still, she knew it was better to stay on her toes. 

Or third, the two time lords had a connection deeper than anything she had previously thought. Or possibly could even comprehend. 

“Is all your human food this bad?” The Doctor asked. 

“Rude.” Ryan commented. 

“What about cereal, Doc? You love cereal.” Graham tried to supply. 

“No,” she frowned. “No, I know what I want, I just can’t remember what’s it’s called.” 

“Could you describe it?” Graham asked. 

“It’s a fruit. It’s..it’s orange.” She made the vague shape of a ball with her hands. 

“...an orange?” Ryan frowned. 

“No!” The Doctor shook her head. “It’s..it’s not human. It’s Gallifreyan.” 

Yaz’s interest peaked. Any mention of her home planet from the Doctor seemed like a giant milestone- maybe less so in the state of delirium she was in. 

“The one I used to sneak you, in the academy?” The Master asked. 

“Yeah!” 

“Academy?” Graham repeated, looking between Yaz and Ryan. 

“And, and we’d always hide in the cupboard and eat it.” The Doctor laughed. “And it’d always make me feel so sick.”

“Are you still intolerant?”

“Probably. But it was so worth it. I loved that fruit.” She grinned widely at her old friend, and Yaz watched, confusion only growing. 

“I’d get it for you again if I could.” He murmured, gently grazing the underside of her chin with his his knuckles. Her gaze softened slightly as she sighed. 

“I know.” 

Yaz frowned. Why couldn’t he get the fruit? Wasn’t it just a short trip? 

“Still!” The Doctor’s signature smile returned. “Cereal will do.” 

-

Graham watched, as the Doctor finally fell asleep, the Master gently stroking some hair from her face. 

“I have a question.” Yaz asked quietly. 

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” He sighed, turning to them. Graham thought the time lord might leave now that the Doctor was up and about, but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry. 

“You mentioned the academy. What did you mean?” She ignored his snarky comment. The Master rolled his eyes. 

“We went to an academy together on Gallifrey. When we were kids.” 

“So..how long have you two actually known each other?” She continued. Graham was glad Yaz was asking all these questions. He had tons himself, but wasn’t as eloquent as her- he didn’t know which to ask first. 

“Almost as long as we’ve lived. Since we were children.”

“So..why are you always trying to kill each other?” She frowned. He set his jaw- the time lord was obviously bored of her persistent questions, but answered anyway. 

“We’re not.”

“You put a bomb on a plane with no parachutes.” 

“That would’ve killed you. Not the Doctor. I don’t want her dead.”

“Then..what do you want?” Ryan butted in, with the next obvious question. 

“Her attention of course. I had information, and she wasn’t listening. So she forced me to turn to drastic measures.” 

The three looked between one another, before Graham bit his lip. 

Oh, bollocks to it.

“Why won’t the Doctor talk about Gallifrey?” He blurted out. Yaz’s breath caught, and the Master only had a minuscule eyebrow raise in response. 

“Because Gallifrey, is a pile of rubble and smoke.”

Graham’s eyes widened- he hadn’t been expecting something like that. 

It made so much sense. Of course the Doctor didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t blame her.Suddenly, he felt awful for even asking. 

“Why?” Yaz, clearly didn’t.

“Wars. Time lords. Take your pick. It’s been destroyed so many times, it’s hard to keep count.” 

“Will it be rebuilt?” She pushed. He chuckled lowly, turning back to look at the sleeping time lord. 

“No. We’re all that’s left.”

“So..that’s it. Once you’re gone? No more time lord?” Ryan frowned. 

“Well, I won’t get into the logistics of the creation of the time lords, but yes. Unless we decide not to be.” He drawled. 

“Oh- I- I see.” Ryan stuttered, clearly embarrassed by the implication. The Master scoffed. 

“Oh don’t be immature. Creating a time lord is nothing like how you puny humans do it. Messy and disgusting creatures.” His lip raised into a slight sneer, before it settled when the Doctor shifted under his gaze. “The creation of a time lord. Oh, now that is art.” 

“Art?” Yaz repeated. 

“In its purest form.” He sighed. “We’ll do it at some point. No doubt the Doctor will want to keep the species alive.”

“I don’t blame her.” Graham shrugged. “I mean, you’re a very interesting race. Multiple bodies and all that.” 

“And smarter than anything you could ever comprehend.” The Master finished smugly. 

“How smart?” Ryan queried. 

“Which part of ‘your puny brain wont comprehend it’ don’t you understand?” The Time Lord narrowed his eyes at Graham’s grandson. 

“I was just asking.” Ryan grumbled. 

“I know. You never stop.”

“Are all time lords this snappy?” Graham attempted to tease him. The Master’s lip didn’t even twitch. 

“Yeah. You just caught the Doctor on a good decade.” He shrugged, then cracking a smile. “She snaps sometimes. As you would when you’re our age. And my, is it beautiful.”

“What is she like? When she snaps?” Yaz seemed to be treading carefully, but all of a sudden, the time lord seemed very prepared to answer questions. 

“It depends on the body. Sometimes she’ll yell, and throw things around. Sometimes she’ll snap at people quietly, or cry. Sometimes she’ll kill.” His eyes flashed on the last word, and Graham swallowed tightly. 

“The Doctor wouldn’t.” He argued weakly. 

“Oh, you really don’t know anything about her, do you?” 

The three glanced between themselves. 

“You should ask about the time war.” He grinned. 

-

The Doctor opened her eyes at the movement beside her. The Master sat down beside her, joining her in her usual spot. 

She had the TARDIS doors open again, one leg drawn up to her chest, and the other dangling out of the blue doors. 

The Master sat opposite her, stretching his own leg out, which rested next to her. 

“How are you feeling?” He asked. 

“Better. Not as..disorientated. I feel like I’m still vibrating though.” She scoffed lightly. 

“That always lasts the longest though.” He considered. 

“At least I can remember Yaz’s name.” She ran a hand over her face, yawning slightly. Her three friends had finally retired, after much of coaxing. 

She could see how exhausted they were, and if she was honest, the time lord was glad for some time without them. 

Regeneration was always harder with someone there to protect from herself- let alone three people. 

“You’re tired.”

“I’m healing.” She retaliated. 

“You should be resting. Properly.”

“You should stop worrying.” He rolled her eyes fondly. “I’ve had worse injuries.”

“I didn’t realise there was a competition.” The Master argued dryly. 

“Shut up.” She nudged his knee with her foot, hardly a kick. “I hate feeling like I’m regenerating.” 

“I know. It’s not nice.” Her old friend admitted. “It’s like there’s a whole new body..restless and tearing at your own skin to get out. It hurts.” 

The Doctor didn’t say anything for a moment. 

“Why didn’t you let me regenerate?” 

“You haven’t had this body for long.” He shrugged, watching the stars drift by on the horizon- if there was one. “I just thought, it’s a bit of a waste if you only get to use it for a century or so.” 

The Doctor narrowed her eyes slightly, but took it at face value- kind of. It was hard for a time lord to not analyse, even if she did try her best sometimes. 

“I’ll pretend to believe you for your peace of mind.” She teased.

“What peace of mind?” He teased.

She only hummed and looked out at the swirling space in front of them. 

“Isn’t it beautiful?” She said quietly. 

“Don’t you get tired of seeing it as that?” He asked with a frown. 

“Don’t you get tired of trying to hurt me?” She rebutted, not unkindly.

“No. It brings me great joy.”

“Exactly.” She nodded at the view out the doors. 

They didn’t say anything for a while. 

“Doctor?” 

“Master?” She indulged him, and turned to glance his way. He managed to settle for a smirk at that, but not much more. 

“You know the TARDIS better than anyone. How did you manage to get impaled?” 

“I told you,” she frowned slightly. “The fuel rod broke apart. The TARDIS hit a meteor.”

“You’re no fool Doctor.” He drawled quietly, narrowing his eyes slightly as he regarded her. The Doctor felt a familiar heat pricking at the back of her neck, when he watched her that intently. “You know when a fuel rod is about to break.”

“What are you implying?” She asked, raising her eyebrows innocently. 

“I don’t know. Maybe, you wanted to see me.” 

She scoffed and sat up a little more, looking back out at the expanse in front of them. 

“Unlike you, I’m not one for causing mass hysteria to get your attention. I would’ve just called if I wanted to see you.” 

“But would I have picked up?” 

She looked at him intently, but didn’t say anything. The Doctor looked down at her hands, watching as a gentle wisp of energy fixed a hangnail and disappeared. 

“I always forget how long regeneration takes.” She sighed a little, dropping her hands and wrapping them around the leg that was drawn close to her body. 

“Mm. Tricky business.” The Master answered absently. 

“How long have you been in this body?” 

“Uh..90 years? Give or take.” 

“Still settling then?” She asked. 

“In some aspects.” He acknowledged. 

They sat together quietly for a long time. The TARDIS gently drifted through the vast expanse, and the Doctor sighed contentedly. She felt the warmth from distant suns on her face, but the closeness of space chilling her skin to the touch. 

She enjoyed the feeling of another person next to her- there usually wasn’t when she was doing this. Not only that, she liked being able to gently hear the beating of his hearts. 

A small part of the Doctor, that had been feeling empty for a long time, always felt complete when the Master was there. Not perfectly- more like a square fitting into a larger circle. It did nicely to fill most of the hole, but would never be enough to make her feel truly content. 

But the Doctor supposed that was just the nature of their relationship. Never perfect for one another but...enough. 

“We’re in Kasterborous.” He pointed out quielty, and when she turned to look, he was frowning. 

“Mhm. I like it here.” 

“Why?”

There were many answers the Doctor could’ve gone with, namely being, ‘it’s the closest I can get to home’, but instead she landed on “I like the colours.”

“You do perplex me.” He sighed and shook his head. 

“It’s mutual.” She reassured. “Why are you still here?” 

“Do you want me to go?” He teased. She shot him a look that resembled ‘you and I both know I don’t.’ But she was too proud to say that. 

“Do you want to go?” 

“No.” He answered simply.

“Do you want to push me out of this ship right now?” She asked teasingly. 

“It’s tempting.” He rolled his eyes sarcastically. “Not sure the TARDIS would let me though. She wouldn’t even let me fix the damn fuel rod.” 

“Don’t blame her. Wouldn’t trust you to prod around in me either.” 

“Well I can see when I’m not wanted.” 

The Doctor scoffed quietly, smile lingering for a moment. 

“Why didn’t you kill my friends?” She asked. He looked at her for a moment, before replying, 

“Why did you make it so easy for me to get out of that pesky pocket dimension?”

“Why did you destroy Gallifrey?” She turned towards him, but her eyes weren’t hard. 

“Why did you save it?” 

“Why did you agree to save my life?” 

“Why haven’t you kicked me out of your TARDIS yet?” 

“Why were you so patient with my ‘pesky human’ friends?”

“Why haven’t you kissed me since we were in that graveyard?”

She stopped and watched his eyes for a moment. They were steely- never giving away anything. 

“Why haven’t you kissed me since 3W?” She asked quietly. 

He chuckled softly to himself for a moment. 

“Why haven’t you asked me to?” 

“I thought we’d gotten to the point where I didn’t need too.” The Doctor responded with a light shrug. He sighed and nodded, taking one of her hands from around her knee and kissing it gently. 

“You don’t.” He admitted. “But I can’t always indulge you. Then it’d stop being exciting.” 

“Hmm. You might be right.” She murmured absently, leaning her head against the wall behind her. “But really? When was the last time we did anything remotely romantic?” She asked, staring up at the ceiling. 

“Hmm.” He frowned. “What about the time we went for a picnic on Akaten?”

“Oh yeah, when you tried to poison me.” She smiled fondly. 

“Or the time we learnt to tango on Vortis?” 

“When we were, what? Three hundred?” She looked back down, surprised to find him smiling a little. 

“God, we’re old.” He scoffed quietly. 

“I prefer mature.” She kicked him lightly. He only smacked her boot away playfully, humming in agreement. 

“How do you deal with humans?” The Master asked. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Their never ending questions were driving me up the wall.” He absently pulled out the knot in the Doctor’s laces, and began to retie them in a way he seemed to like. 

“What were they asking you?” 

“Things you wouldn’t tell them.” He caught her eye, and the Doctor could feel them darkening. “I hear you’ve been quite secretive.” 

“It’s better that way.” She sighed, turning to face the unknown, outside. 

“Better or easier?” 

The Doctor didn’t answer. 

“They asked me how we knew each other.” He hummed. “I told them about the academy.”

“Is that all they asked?” She sighed deeply. 

“They asked about Gallifrey.” He paused, gauging her reaction as her shoulders dropped slightly. 

Part of her wanted to be angry at her friends. But she knew she couldn’t be. They’d always find out one way or another- if anything, the Master had done her a favour by telling them, so she didn’t have too. 

“I told them it was destroyed.” He continued. 

“Hm.” She nodded at the stars. 

“They wanted to know if we’re going to remain the last time lords.” The Doctor looked at him, shocked slightly that he’d brought it up. 

Of course she’d thought about it. The two of them were all that was left, of course she’d thought about saving her species in the only possibly way left that she could think of. 

But she knew the Master would never even consider it. Not when he’d worked so hard to destroy them- for reasons the Doctor still couldn’t grasp. 

“Are we?” She asked. 

“I don’t know, you tell me. I assumed you’d want to at least try for one.” 

The Doctor frowned. 

“Do you want one?” 

“I don’t know.” He admitted.

“Well...” she swallowed, trying to choose her words carefully. “Would you say, what you found out was important enough to end the species all together?” It was a hard pill to swallow, but she knew the answer she’d get. 

“I think so. If you ask me, the universe would be a lot better off without any time lords.” 

“Maybe..maybe you’re right.” The Master looked at her, bewildered. Clearly that hadn’t been what he was expecting. “Until I find out what you know, I can’t tell you that for a fact. But..maybe without them there, the universe would be more at peace.” 

The Master regarded her for a second. 

“Huh. Alright. The Time Lords shall die then.” 

“Maybe.” The Doctor considered, holding out a hand. “But for now, the Time Lords’ end with us.”

The Master took her hand and shook it firmly. It was a pact now- one that wasn’t going to be broken anytime soon. 

The Doctor didn’t know how it sat in her stomach. 

“The Time Lords’ end with us.” 

-

When Yaz awoke, at what she assumed was the middle of the night- well, it must have been, somewhere out there, she couldn’t fall back to sleep. 

The day’s events replayed in her mind. Most of it had been resolved, and sure, whilst she still knew virtually nothing, she knew more about the Doctor than she had at the start of the day. 

No wonder her friend hadn’t wanted to talk about Gallifrey, it had been burnt to the ground. 

Still, two things didn’t sit right with Yaz. 

First, was the time war. What was it? Why did the Master insinuate that the Doctor has killed in it? Was she a solider? Was she a killer? 

The idea of getting up and trying to find the library that the Doctor had once mentioned played on her mind. There had to be some information on it in there. But she decided it was a bad idea. Yaz did not want to get lost on this ship, especially with the Doctor still recovering. 

The second, was the Master. Yaz didn’t trust him at all- she thought that was fairly reasonable. But she couldn’t wrap her head around his relationship with the Doctor. Only a month ago, he’d been trying to blow them up, and now, here he was, saving the Doctor’s life- even saving her, Ryan’s and Graham’s, just because, what? The Doctor had asked nicely? 

It made no sense, and Yaz was so intrigued. If they’d known each other for two thousand years, that must have meant a connection that Yaz would never really understand. 

But still, she wanted to try. 

Yaz sighed deeply and pushed herself out of bed. She threw on a dressing gown and padded out of her room. 

She thought she might sleep a little better if she made sure the Doctor was alright. The Master was not to be trusted as far as Yaz was concerned. 

The woman wandered down the corridor until she got to the Doctor’s room. 

It wasn’t really what Yaz would consider a bedroom- more, just an empty room with a bed in it. But the Doctor insisted that was all she needed. 

When Yaz peaked her head round the door though, and found the bed empty, she frowned. Stepping back into the corridor, she decided to go through the console room and down the other corridor. That way, she could see if the Doctor was in the console room, or the bedroom she’d been put in earlier that day, at the end of the parallel corridor. 

Yaz wandered back down to the opening of the console room, stepping out into it. The Doctor didn’t seem to be in there either. She began to make her way across, but stopped and hid herself in the shadows when she noticed something at the enterance. 

The Doctor and the Master were sat on the floor, with the doors to the TARDIS wide open. Their legs were tangled together, and the Doctor was murmuring. The Time Lord held a hand out, which the Master looked at, before taking it and shaking firmly. 

Yaz frowned, confused at the interaction. Her confusion increased by tenfold though, when the Doctor leant the rest of the way between the two of them, and pressed a chaste kiss to the other time lords lips. The Master brought a hand to her cheek and murmured something lowly. The Doctor only scoffed and sat back against her wall, replying. 

That was when Yaz realised they weren’t speaking English. 

She listened hard, and the language, which she decided was probably Gallifreyan, set a warmth in her chest. 

The language sounded like grass, damp with fresh dew, sun kissed skin and gentle rain tapping on a window. Like the crunch of autumn leaves, and the quiet rush of water into an ecosystem in the smallest pond. 

It sounded like a sigh of contentedness, the bittersweet silence as an ancient star burnt out and died. Like the beauty of galaxies expanding forever in front of her, and yet, the never ending distance between her and them. Beautiful but just unreachable. 

And it all made sense to Yaz. 

The time lords, like the language they shared, were perfect for one another conceptually, but in reality, just off kilter. She supposed that was why they couldn’t keep away from another. 

She clambered into bed, and Ryan groaned beside her. 

“Yaz, what are you doing?” He grumbled. “Why aren’t you sleeping in your own bed?”

“I’m not staying.” She whispered. “I...I just heard Gallifreyan.” 

Ryan’s head lifted off of the pillow slightly, his eyebrows raising. 

“What did it sound like?” He asked tiredly. 

Yaz looked at the ceiling, hands over her abdomen as she tried to think of a way to sum it up- how to sum up the time lords relationship. 

“It sounded like..” she bit her lip. “It sounded like life.”


End file.
